Orange Polenta Cakes & Drizzle

These little orange polenta cakes are dreamy and delicious, with a refreshingly different texture to normal cupcakes. Their accompanying drizzle, with its orange and honey sweetness, is the perfect finishing touch for the best healthy dessert ever.

Ingredients

150g Plain Flour

1 tbsp Baking Powder

Pinch Sea Salt

225g Polenta

100g Ground Almonds

75g Golden Caster Sugar

3 Free Range Eggs, separated

4 Oranges – juice (AND the zest of 1!)

225ml Olive Oil

Icing Sugar (for dusting)

Drizzle

2 tbsp Honey

2 Whole Oranges, peeled & diced

This recipe is from Niamh Shield‘s lovely book Comfort & Spice… She recommends using Blood Oranges; which are delicious, but difficult to get hold of sometimes. Normal oranges work a treat, especially if they’re sweet. The book is fab – not least for this recipe

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚c

Make the drizzle – by carefully peeling an Orange and dicing it into 1cm cubes (discarding the pithy bits). Put the chopped Orange and its juice in a bowl, and add 2 tbsp Honey. Let the mixture steep in the bowl…

Now for the Polenta Cakes… Sift the 150g Plain Flour, 1 tbsp Baking Powder and a pinch of Salt into a large bowl with the 225g Polenta, 100g Ground Almonds and 75g Golden Caster Sugar (half Brown, half Caster seems to work too)

Separate the 3 Free Range Eggs

Whisk the Egg Whites until they’re at soft peak stage (like for Meringue)

Whisk the Egg Yolks with the zest of 1 Orange, the juice of 4 Oranges and the 225g Olive Oil

Stir the Egg Yolk mixture through the Flour mixture – do this gently to keep the air you have sifted and whisked in…

Now gently fold the Egg Whites into the mixture

Spoon into a lightly oiled and floured muffin tray – or into mini cupcake cases

Bake for 30 minutes or so, until they’re cooked and springy when you touch them (I have overbaked them before, and although more dense; they’re still delicious)

Leave to cool for 15 minutes before removing and cooling fully on a rack